There's Something in the Water

* This was the prompt for our Mastermind writing exercise last week. I'm going to hold myself accountable to showing up and doing the work, so I'm sharing these little tidbits right here. This was a fun piece that even made me laugh out loud.

There's Something in the Water

Mama always said, “There’s something in the water.” Little did she know, there really was something in the water.

Jeff Warrener moved to town in 1976. He was a mysterious guy with his hot rod car and movie star hair. Every girl in town wanted to be the one sitting next to him at the drive-in. Peggy was the only one he ever chose for that privilege.

One night when they left the party, Jeff ventured down River Road like he so often did. It was the only place they seemed to be able to be alone. Not that there weren’t plenty of places they could have hunkered down for the night, but that little spot in the river where the Boy Scouts always went fishing for crawdads was just too much to resist. There was a nice clearing that his convertible could slip into without hitting the nearby potholes or getting scratched by the low hanging Ash tree branches. 

Jeff pulled into the familiar spot and turned the lights off. Peggy pulled the rubber band from her hair and let the unruly curls loose. Jeff liked running his fingers through her hair and she loved having him do it too. She slipped her shoes off and propped her feet up on the dash. 

“What was that?” 

“What was what? I didn’t see anything.”

“There was a light in the water - right there where the driftwood is hugging the bank.”

“Jeff, you know I don’t like it when you try to scare me like that. You don’t need an excuse if you want to get a little closer. I’m not shy.”

“Peggy, I’m not trying to scare you. There was something strange there in the water and I’m going to find out what it was.”

Jeff got out of the car and shimmied his way down the bank to get a closer look. He could see the light just beneath the surface, it danced back and forth like seaweed. 

“What do you see? Is the Lockness Monster down there?” Peggy chided.

Before Jeff could answer, the light shot straight up and wrapped itself around his throat and pulled him to the bottom of the Mississippi. 

Jeff was never seen or heard from again. I guess mama was right; there is something in the water.